Business Report FY2015
1．General
During 45 years since its establishment, the Institute for Future Engineering (IFENG),
a first-generation think tank in Japan, has continuously been trying to gain an insight
into the developing tendency of science and technology and into socioeconomicchanges, to identify issues and their solutions for a desirable future on the basis ofengineering methodologies, and to propose ways how science and technology solve
possible problems.
The fiscal 2015 concludes the third year of IFENG as a public-interest corporation.
Efforts to achieve a capability commensurate with the status of the institute haveresulted in 58 researchers (mostly part-timers) from 34. Synergy of the newly hired
part-timers with different backgrounds with the full-time researchers who have got
accustomed to the new management system has led to a variety of commissioned
works and has provided some possibilities for business expansions to independent
nonprofit projects, although the current account showed some deficit again, indicatingthat the management reform is still incomplete. Meanwhile, IFENG obtained the fifth
place in the GGTTI think tank ranking in the science and technology area for 2015,
following the eighth in 2012 and 2013 and the sixth in 2014.

IFENG's activities include investigations in the area of future engineering, interaction
with the public related to future engineering (publicity, services, etc.), and international
exchange related to future engineering.
The activities of a public-interest corporation are to be categorized into nonprofit (N)and for-profit (F) ones. The former is intended for the general public, while the latter isfor specific parties.

2. Business-related activities
For explanations in this section, the N and P activities are further divided into three1each: (1) commissioned investigations (investigations driven by commissions orsubventions by other parties), (2) independent investigations (investigations relying on
its own fund), and (3) interactive research. For (4) international exchange, N and P
activities are not differentiated because of the wide variety of the relevant activities.

A total of 41 projects were implemented in FY2015, including one continued from thepreceding year and five to be continued in the next year (of which one was thecontinued work). Thirty-six were thus concluded within the fiscal year and consideredin the account settlement.

(1) Commissioned investigations
Of the 36 projects completed in FY2015, four were subventionary and 32 werecommissioned.
The subventions were obtained from the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research("Kakenhi", Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) for three projects (includingjoint investigations) and from Watanabe Memorial Foundation for the Advancement of
New Technology for one.
The commissions came from governmental agencies for 11 projects (compared with 13
in the preceding year, the same hereinafter), government-run institutions for 3 (10),local government for 1 (1), universities for 5 (5), and business companies for 12 (5). The
commissioning government agencies included the Ministries of Education, Culture,Sports, Science and Technology; Economy, Trade and Industry; Environment; andLand, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism; as well as Japan Patent Office. Other
commissioning parties include National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, OsakaUniversity, Japan Science and Technology Agency and other national researchinstitutes. Commissions by business companies are clearly increasing.
The five projects to be continued to the next year include two subventionary and threecommissioned investigations.
In terms of the business categories, 15 projects belong to nonprofit activities (N1)1 and2

21 for-profit activities (F1).

(2) Independent investigations
The self-financed nonprofit independent investigations (N2) carried out in 2015
included preparatory works for commissioned projects and studies by full-time
researchers to expand their knowledge.
The for-profit independent investigations (F2) included preparatory works forcommissioned projects and support for business companies' activities related to scienceand technology.

(3) Interaction with the public (publicity, services, etc.)(i) Nonprofit interaction with the public (N3)
The activities below were implemented to feedback the research outcome of IFENG towide public:- As a publicity measure, Annual Report 2015 was published which summarizes theInstitute's activities in the year and contains articles by researchers. The Annual Report
was distributed to parties interested and can be viewed in IFENG's website.
- IFENG supported, or participated in the planning of, several symposia open to thepublic, and in some cases served as the secretariat.
- IFENG researchers published their research results or presented their views in anumber of conferences, meetings and seminars.
- Research results or views of researchers were also published in general magazinesand other media, including IFENG's website.

(ii) For-profit interaction with the public (F3)
Activities in this category included support of organizations involved in futureengineering, training and investigations commissioned by business companies, andpublishing (12 copies of the MEXT Report of the 9th Science and Technology
Foresight were sold).
3(4) International exchange
In FY2015, a total of 12 IFENG researchers visited Taiwan, South Korea, USA, Britain,Australia, Canada and Singapore to perform investigations/In April, the president was invited by Taiwan's Market Intelligence and Consulting
Institute for a two-day lecture on "STI Policy formation and implementation" inaddition to three lectures in governmental agencies.
An example of international exchange in science and technology is the three-monthinternship offered to Paveena Lalitnorasate, a Tokyo Institute of Technology student
from Thailand, whose research results were presented in an academic conference.

4